Going green had nothing to do with it. Had Columbia been designed in a sane manner (no SRB's, Kerosine fuel, inline external, with recoverable engines NOT mounted on the orbiter), then vibration and, liquid-hydrogen+foam/ice would not have been a problem. The shuttle was designed the way it was, to meet CONGRESSIONAL (ie. PORK) requirements. The use of Thiokol (ATK) SRB's was MANDATED BY CONGRESS. Not the aerospace engineers who delivered the first several design iterations. The Thiokol involvement was mandated as a porkbarrel project for incumbent Utah senators. (who are STILL bitching and moaning about the loss of jobs at ATK since Ares was canceled).

The shuttle failed, because it was designed by politicians. Not rocket scientists.

Yes, and actually, even though hydrazine is an awesome fuel, very high-performing, and reliable, the costs imposed on its use, due to the safety hazards, are one of the things that make spaceflight so freaking expensive. Think especially, about the precautions needed for decomissioning satellites or other space vehicles.

The US shot a satellite down, a couple years ago, with an interceptor missile. This satellite was going to come down anyway - but the problem was, that this vehicle had failed, while it still maintained a huge onboard supply of hydrazine. There were concerns about sensitive equipment falling into the wrong hands, to be sure. And there's always the international pissing-contest going on about showing-off new weapons and armament capabilities. But I assure you, that the main concern, and the reason why they actually did this - using a brand-new system, that was essentially purpose-built explicitly for THIS task, involving tens of thousands of man-hours of navy crew, as well as tracking-station and ground personnel for MONTHS, was to prevent that huge frozen hydrazine tank from falling on population. The team that shot it down, was very specifically concerned with not just hitting the vehicle, or damaging it - but with directly striking the portion of the vehicle that contained the hydrazine, so that it would discharge in space, in a controlled fashion (boom!) instead of in the atmosphere, or on the ground, in an uncontrolled, unsafe manner.

This operation was hugely expensive. There were side benefits, as I noted. But the biggest benefit was to the safety of people on the ground. That's you and me, and our families. That whole operation would not have been necessary, had it not been for the hydrazine load. They would have probably not taken the risk of a shoot-down, and just let it de-orbit, and fall wherever, had it not contained the hydrazine.

This stuff is very nasty, and I know that just about everyone in the space industry would be very happy if they could find something less toxic and hazardous that would do the same job. Calling it a "green" fuel - would be disingenuous. I think they're more looking for something that's just more sane and safe, easier and cheaper to use.

An empowered, wealthy middle-class is capable of fighting back.
However, I think THIS middle-class has been pretty well disarmed. Both in the actual "arms" sense, and in the sense of campaign-finance and influence peddling. The game has been "over" since about the year 2000.

Where my unfortunate wife works, she's classified as "full-time"; where the threshold is, you must clock 32 hours minimum, at least two out of every 4 weeks, and no less than 12 hours on the other two weeks. She is pretty lucky, because she does usually work about 35 hours, steady. Some "full-time" workers are getting shafted down below that threshold.

I am on salary, of course, and I'm working 50-60.

The Master recalls fondly, the slave that says; "Yes Master" - moreso than the one who gathers 2% more cotton.

#1 first and foremost: Don't listen to the others who are telling you that your high-stress job is the cause of your high-blood pressure.

Certainly, it is a HUGE contributor. But there are genetic and physical, and psychological, (and cultural) factors that MUST be in-place, in order for the job to "do that to you".

If you want to continue on your path of self-sacrifice, and become a martyr to fixing other's problems until you are killed in the line of duty, then keep-on-keeping-on, my friend. Your position will make room for another person eager for a paycheck and that special martyr feeling.

I don't think that the job, in itself, is what is killing you. Though if you want to deal with the factors that ARE killing you, you'll need to make some adjustments in lifestyle - which don't necessarily have one thing to do with job performance. And, in fact, may improve it:

1. See a doctor about your high-blood pressure. It happens to lots of us, particularly males, particularly blacks. There are genetic factors that we can't really fight, but long-term, if you don't do anything about it, it will fucking kill you. Every day you live with abnormally high blood pressure, your organs are damaged. Including your bread-and-butter. Your brain. This happened to me.

2. Get on an exercise program. Find one that works for you. 30-minutes of cardio, 3 times per week minimum. If you can't run, bike. If you can't bike, try kickboxing, yoga, whatever.

3. SALT can fuck you dead. It is in fucking everything. It is very difficult to avoid it. It's in most pre-prepared foods, and if you don't have time to cook your own food from fresh ingredients, you're probably consuming more than 1500 mg per day. Most likely more than 3000 mg Your blood pressure can go up as much as 100 mm Hg due to excessive sodium consumption, if you are sensitive - and many of us are, and we have no idea. If you have salt sensitivity, and you try cutting it out of your diet for a few days, you will actually FEEL BETTER - you'll have more energy, you'll find that you can exercise better without running out of breath so quickly, etc.

4. from your dr. there are tons of meds for high blood pressure.

5. Many Buddhist temples will allow non-practicing members to attend meditation, and even instruct non-practicing laypeople in how to perform TM, which is an art that is shown to improve mental focus and relaxation. One factor in high blood pressure is chronic muscle tension. Learning to become aware of one's body, and keep the muscles relaxed on a more regular and general basis has many benefits, and overall lower blood pressure is one scientifically-proven benefit. Also - instruction in Zen may just give you a different outlook on life, and you may stop giving so much of a shit about other people's problems with figuring out how to undelete mail messages they shouldn't have been fucking with.

The fourth problem is that fighter pilots are generally selected from a subset of our population of individuals who are on the near-perfect end of the spectrum of human vision.

The same is not nearly so for those who are selected to drive automobiles. :(

At a new year's party - I endured a long conversation of a bunch of self-proclaimed "nerds and geeks" talking about how our new nerdy sci-fi culture was breeding a new generation of brilliant science-and-math oriented geniuses. Because we all grew up loving sci fi tv shows like star trek and star wars, and because we all play video games and read comic books.

I played the bad guy. The stick in the mud. As I always do. I expect not to be invited back next year. I asked the room: how many of them had completed Calculus, or Linear Algebra, or were working in Science or Engineering fields. Not a one. Well, one. But he was a Marketing Manager at a software company, and couldn't write a singe line of code to save his life. I am such a shit - I made them feel bad.

And that's what this is all about. Ego. Math and Science classes are hard work, and when you fail you get bad grades, and feel bad. And there isn't a big audience clapping, or a row of cheerleaders chanting "go team go!" when you win. No. Our culture celebrates ignorance, and punishes brilliance.

I honestly don't think that this nation deserves to be competitive anymore. We had our brief flash of glory. 40 years of selfish, bad policy. It will take a change of heart, and then at least 20 years to build it back. And I don't think that we have the gumption, and the capitalists who run our nation don't want to build anything back. They don't even want to pay to repair bridges. They will leave this country a smoking ruin, and move on to where the money is. Switzerland. Luxembourg. Dubai. KSA.

or caps-lock!

The true big expense of companies now, is on lobbyists and bribery via telegraphed stock buybacks and insider-trading for politicians. This is why companies are not hiring workers or investing in R&D. The biggest bang for the buck now, is bribing politicians, to print money, to pay wealthy plutocrats, to bribe politicians.